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The Genetic Legacy of Zoroastrianism in Iran and India: Insights Into Population

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The Genetic Legacy of Zoroastrianism in Iran and India: Insights Into Population bioRxiv preprint first posted online Apr. 18, 2017; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/128272. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. The genetic legacy of Zoroastrianism in Iran and India: Insights into population structure, gene flow and selection. Saioa López1,11*, Mark G. Thomas1,11, Lucy van Dorp1,2, Naser Ansari-Pour3, Sarah Stewart4, Abigail L. Jones5, Erik Jelinek1, Lounès Chikhi6,7, Tudor Parfitt8, Neil Bradman9, Michael E. Weale10, Garrett Hellenthal1** 1Dept. Genetics, Evolution & Environment, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. 2Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. 3Faculty of New Sciences and Technology, University of Tehran, Tehran, 14395 -1561, Iran. 4The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, WC1H 0XG, UK. 5Liverpool Women's Hospital. Liverpool, L8 7SS, UK. 6CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, 31062, France. 7Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, 2780-156, Portugal. 8Florida International University. Florida, 33199, US. 9Henry Stewart Group, London, WC1A 2HN, UK. 10Dept. Medical & Molecular Genetics, King's College London, London, SE1 9RT, UK. 11These authors contributed equally to this work. * [email protected]; @Saioa_l **[email protected] bioRxiv preprint first posted online Apr. 18, 2017; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/128272. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Abstract Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest extant religions in the world, originating in Persia (present-day Iran) during the second millennium BCE. Historical records indicate that migrants from Persia brought Zoroastrianism to India, but there is debate over the timing of these migrations. Here we present novel genome-wide autosomal, Y-chromosome and mitochondrial data from Iranian and Indian Zoroastrians and neighbouring modern-day Indian and Iranian populations to conduct the first genome-wide genetic analysis in these groups. Using powerful haplotype-based techniques, we show that Zoroastrians in Iran and India show increased genetic homogeneity relative to other sampled groups in their respective countries, consistent with their current practices of endogamy. Despite this, we show that Indian Zoroastrians (Parsis) intermixed with local groups sometime after their arrival in India, dating this mixture to 690-1390 CE and providing strong evidence that the migrating group was largely comprised of Zoroastrian males. By exploiting the rich information in DNA from ancient human remains, we also highlight admixture in the ancestors of Iranian Zoroastrians dated to 570 BCE-746 CE, older than admixture seen in any other sampled Iranian group, consistent with a long-standing isolation of Zoroastrians from outside groups. Finally, we report genomic regions showing signatures of positive selection in present-day Zoroastrians that might correlate to the prevalence of particular diseases amongst these communities. bioRxiv preprint first posted online Apr. 18, 2017; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/128272. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Introduction The Zoroastrian religion developed from an ancient religion that was once shared by the ancestors of tribes that settled in Iran and northern India. It is thought to have been founded by the prophet priest Zarathushtra (Greek, Zoroaster). Most scholars now believe he lived around 1200 BCE, at a time when the ancient Iranians inhabited the areas of the Inner Asian Steppes prior to the great migrations south to modern Iran, Afghanistan, Northern Iraq and parts of Central Asia. Zoroastrianism became the state religion of three great Iranian empires: Achaemenid (559-330 BCE) founded by King Cyrus the Great and ended by the conquest of Alexander the Great, Parthian (c. 247 BCE - 224 CE), and Sasanian (224-651 CE), during which time the religion as an imperial faith is best known. Zoroastrianism ceased to be the state religion of Iran after the Arab conquests (636-652 CE), although it is thought that widespread conversion to Islam did not begin until about 767 CE1. According to Parsi (i.e. Indian Zoroastrians) tradition, a group of Zoroastrians set sail from Iran to escape persecution by the Muslim majority. They landed on the coast of Gujarat (India) where they were permitted to stay and practice their religion. The date of the arrival remains has been the cause of speculation and varies between 785 CE2 and 936 CE3. These dates, among others, are based on the Qisseh-ye Sanjan, a legendary account of the journey by sea from Iran and settlement in India4. However, maritime trade is known to have taken place between ethnic groups from Iran, including Zoroastrians, and peoples in India long before the arrival of Islam5. Down the subsequent centuries, the Indian Zoroastrians (also known as Parsis) maintained contact with the Zoroastrians of Iran and later became an influential minority under British Colonial rule. bioRxiv preprint first posted online Apr. 18, 2017; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/128272. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Zoroastrian communities today are concentrated in India (61,000), Southern Pakistan (1,675) and Iran - mainly in Tehran, Yazd and Kerman – (14,000). In the last 200 years Zoroastrians, both Parsi and Irani, have formed diaspora communities in North America (14,306), Canada (6,422), Britain (5,000), Australasia (3,808) and the Middle East (2,030). Zoroastrianism is a non-proselytising religion, with a hereditary male priesthood of uncertain origins6. Among the Parsis, priestly families are distinguished from the laity. Priestly status is patrilineal, although there is also a strong matrilineal component with the daughters of priests encouraged to marry into priestly families. Remarkably, many priests preserve family genealogies that can be traced back to the purported time of arrival of Iranian Zoroastrians in India, and beyond to an Iranian homeland. Genetic data provide a means of examining the biological relationships of different populations and testing claims of common ancestry. Previous studies of Iranian Zoroastrians have suggested they are genetically differentiated from their neighbouring populations. For example, Farjadian et al.7 analysed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in 14 different ethnic groups from Iran and observed that Zoroastrians and Jews were genetically distinct from other groups. In the same vein, Lashgary et al.8 analysed fourteen bi-allelic loci from the non-recombining region of the Y- chromosome (NRY) and observed a notable reduction in haplogroup diversity in Iranian Zoroastrians compared with all other groups. Furthermore, a recent study using genome-wide autosomal DNA found that haplotype patterns in Iranian Zoroastrians matched more than other modern Iranian groups to a high coverage early Neolithic farmer genome from Iran9. Less is known about the genetic landscape and the origins of Zoroastrianism in India, despite Parsis representing more than 80% of present-day Zoroastrians worldwide10. A study of four restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) suggested a closer genetic affinity of Parsis to Southern Europeans than to non-Parsis from Bombay11. Furthermore, NRY haplotype analysis12 and patterns bioRxiv preprint first posted online Apr. 18, 2017; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/128272. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. of variation at the HLA locus13 in the Parsis of Pakistan support a predominately Iranian origin of these Parsis. Prompted by these observations we explored the genetic legacy of Zoroastrianism in more detail by generating novel genome-wide autosomal and Y/mtDNA genotype data for Iranian and Indian Zoroastrian individuals. By comparing to other publicly available genetic data and exploiting linkage disequilibrium information in the autosomal genome, we aimed to identify the demographic processes, including admixture and isolation, that have contributed most to shaping the current genetic landscape of modern Zoroastrian populations. We used the priestly status of Zoroastrian individuals to evaluate claims of patrilineal recent common ancestry. We also assessed the extent to which genetic data supports historical records tracing the origin of Indian Zoroastrians to migrants from Iran, including the timing of migrations and the patrilineal and matrilineal contributions of Iranian Zoroastrians to the Parsi gene pool. Finally, we searched for genomic signatures of positive selection in the Zoroastrian populations that may relate to the prevalence of diseases or other phenotypic traits in the community.
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